


White Violets and Gladiolus

by everafterhappily



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Bog mention, Other, Pare mention, Potionless - Freeform, Stuff mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 00:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15829983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everafterhappily/pseuds/everafterhappily
Summary: Having her do nothing was better than pestering, though. The few times Marianne snapped to were usually the times Dawn had just managed to twist Sunny’s arm into doing something for her. One Friday night, it was a drunken game of man-hunt four streets over. Another, a rager in Tommy Birtwell's house. Once Dawn had even managed to tuck and roll into Sunny’s beat-up pick-up and get them across town to a bar – okay, an all-ages bar – only for Marianne to have beaten her to the parking lot. Marianne upheld sister’s honor, the only rule being Don’t tell Dad, but…still. Why couldn’t Dawn live a little? Even if her sister’s love life was currently in need of the casket spray Dawn was already taking into the back, it didn’t mean that Dawn’s needed to be.





	White Violets and Gladiolus

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drabble I had hoped to make into a full-length story...from Marianne's perspective. Sometimes things change.

“Can you pass me that ribbon?”

            She blinked.

            “Marianne!” One Mississippi, two Mississippi… “ _Marianne,_ pass me that ribbon.” Dawn clicked her fingers anxiously in front of her sister’s face. It could have been easier just to reach over, and take it off the counter in between her hands, which had come to a stop over an already-wilting bouquet of white roses. It used to be, Marianne would have tried to toss the roll of ribbon onto Dawn’s outstretched wrist or blown enough raspberries one of the clerks would pointedly complain about the weather getting into the store – or she would have _looked up_ , even. There just wasn’t enough energy in Marianne to care anymore.

            With a disappointed sigh, Dawn picked it up herself. Both girls were working together on a floral arrangement for a funeral. Honestly, those were the only orders Marianne would take anymore. Doing the casket sprays was considered the hardest work, something left to the best members of the crew. Marianne could handle them; after all, it was expected she would take over the business from Dad one day. But instead of ducking out of shifts or cooing over cute puppy gifs like in the good old days, Marianne showed up and robotically perfected each style of spray: _Dearly Departed_ , _Gone but Not Forgotten_ , and the one she and Dawn had just been making fun of when it was announced three months ago: _What I Would Have Said Had I Known_.

           “Do you think the amount of ugly and complicated they get gets worse every time Maurice adds a syllable?” Marianne had asked as the girls ran to the greenhouse after the team meeting announcement, tears streaming out of their eyes. For weeks afterward, the girls would make elaborate apologies that always featured those words. Dad only caught on when Marianne turned to Dawn over dinner with an enthusiastic “Oh, Dawn! Did you eat the last crescent roll? What I would have said had I _known_!” He delivered a half-hour lecture on appreciating the artistry of your employees – mostly for Marianne’s benefit, while Dawn spent most of the time texting her best friend Sunny – and both girls had solemnly sworn not to do it again, under threat of grounding. Later that night, Marianne had knocked on Dawn’s door to let her know she was done in the shower. “Sorry Dad was kinda rough,” she grimaced after Dawn glanced up from Sunny’s sign-off. “I didn’t expect the lecture.” Her trademark mischievous grin appeared, and Dawn groaned before she could even finish – “What I would have said _had I known_!” She’d even managed to dodge Mr. Snuggles, the sheep Dawn chucked at her cackling back.

            And then three days later? Zombie. Total zombie.

            Like right now, with this casket spray, for example. It was a half-casket cover, with a dozen white roses mixed with a dozen of the gauzy ballet pink roses Dawn loved. There were some evergreen foliage and heather branches meant to be artfully mixed towards the back, to make everything pop. Marianne had succeeded in placing three of the emptiest stems towards the middle, which would have been fine if she’d bothered to arrange them all. Instead, she was just staring out the window. …Cool. This new zone-out she was doing was somehow even worse than her new-normal routine of school, work, dinner, shower, bed, repeat. Lately, she didn’t even knock on Dawn’s doorframe to say good night. Just…nothing.

            Nothing was better than pestering, though. The few times Marianne snapped to were usually the times Dawn had _just_ managed to twist Sunny’s arm into doing something for her. One Friday night, it was a drunken game of man-hunt four streets over. Another, a rager in Tommy Birtwell's house. Once Dawn had even managed to tuck and roll into Sunny’s beat-up pick-up and get them across town to a _bar_ – okay, an all-ages bar – only for Marianne to have beaten her to the parking lot. Marianne upheld sister’s honor, the only rule being _Don’t tell Dad_ , but… _still_. Why couldn’t Dawn live a little? Even if her sister’s love life was currently in need of the casket spray Dawn was already taking into the back, it didn’t mean that Dawn’s needed to be.

            Sunny was already at the cooler, picking out another delivery. Pare, who was over six foot, had left the next vase at the back of the top shelf. Jerk. Dawn shoved the casket spray in less gently than she meant to and scooped the vase up for her friend.

            “Listen, Sunny,” she whispered, leaning in close with the vase. “Do you have any idea what happened with that break-up?”

            He shrugged, taking the vase and a small amount of cellophane off the roll.

            Dawn sighed again. “She’s always watching, waiting, _worrying_. I don’t know whatever happened two months ago, but it must have been really bad.”

            “Yeah, I mean…you can take care of yourself!”

            She perked up from spinning the cellophane roll across the counter. “Sooooo, what’s the news on The Dark Forest? You ready to pay up your knight-in-shining-armor?”

            Halfway through the delivery checklist, Sunny paused. “…My what?”

            “Me, silly! Grabbing that vase for you.”

            “Oh. Yeah.”

            “ _So_? I booked the owner for three and I don’t want to be late.”

            Flipping the sheet back down to sign, he sighed. “Dawn, listen, maybe a tattoo isn’t the be—”

            But she was already off, sprucing up some of the older vases ready for the floor and wrestling through something by herself. “It’s just that I think Tad is gonna see how serious I am with my new ink. And at first I was thinking that maybe I wanted something, I don’t know, artsy – but what better way to prove my commitment than his name?”

            “You’re pretty enough withou–”

            “I mean, it’s so dumb that he thinks I’m not into him just because Nathan and I were figuring out where we stood like, what? Two weeks ago? That was all Nathan anyway. Like I said – I don’t like my ego being hurt is all.”

            “Dawn.”

            “And I know what you’re gonna say. But, like, who does like that? It’s not going to stop me from doing my thing and trying stuff out. Right? And tattoos _are_ a way to express yourself.”

            “ _Dawn_.” Sunny gestured to one last vase still in the cooler, arms full of sprays and tiny cards. “I’ll drive you, but I have to get going.”

            Grabbing the car keys from his pockets, she rushed out the door squealing. Sunny shook his head. Dawn should have known better – when it came to Sunny, she always got what she wanted. Honestly, it was going to get him in trouble.

            Even if he was going to get fired for driving her to a tattoo parlor on the other side of town, at least for the moment Sunny had Dawn’s help stuffing the cards into envelopes and running some of the bigger sprays into waiting funeral directors. Driving with Dawn was one of his favorite parts of the day. Even though she played top forty hits (he preferred the sixties himself) and could not stop talking about her thousand-and-one crushes, Dawn could be genuinely thoughtful. He’d never forget the first day of work. Marianne spent half of the staff meeting chewing Dawn out in front of the entire staff for accidentally destroying a bridal centerpiece with some of the last white roses they had that week. Instead of crying or shouting back, Dawn had apologized in front of everyone. After the meeting broke up, she cornered Sunny to ask for his help. They drove to the warehouse first thing to see if any were left over from the morning’s market. Clutching the last collection of white roses in her lap, she assured him afterward she was okay. “Honestly? She's just super stressed with her own wedding plans right now. And Marianne was totally right. This bride has been a nightmare, and I should’ve made sure the stems I was clipping weren’t…you know. Actual roses.” To thank him, she hopped into the truck to help him with rounds that afternoon. It had become routine ever since; the one o’clock delivery was part-story time and part-complaining hour.

           And if he was being honest with himself, Sunny hoped someday soon to turn it into part-date-planning hour.

           In the here and now, he couldn’t help but feel nervous pulling into The Dark Forest’s parking lot. The parlor’s windows were covered over with fading black paper, but he could see a butch woman with gages and a shaved head popping bubblegum at the counter. The strip mall it was located in was practically crumbling around the smeared, stained glass. If he'd had to, he probably could have sworn on the Bible that there were gang tags spray-painted on the side of the building where they had come in.

          “Well, Sunny, this is my stop!” Dawn grabbed her phone and auxiliary cord out of the ancient radio and started to lean out of the passenger’s side.

           Sunny inhaled. “Hey, Dawn – you sure you want to do this?”

          For a brief moment, she turned and looked him square in the face, confused. He felt like he should say something more (“Hey Dawn, don’t bother – I think you’re gorgeous." "Pick you up at eight?”) but any words bubbling up to the surface felt…dumb.

           Dawn took a moment to really look at him. Sometimes she wondered if Sunny ever got jealous of all her boy-toys. His eyebrows always furrowed and sometimes - like right now - he looked like he was sucking on a lemon. Once or twice, usually during a road-trip game of Truth or Dare, she debated actually asking him. But ever since Marianne went off the rails, Sunny had become her _only_  best friend, the one person she could tell everything to. If he said yes, it would honestly just ruin whatever they had going on. He wilted under her glare and nervously half-grinned at her. She beamed. “Of course, silly! Pick me up around, like, four?”

           He let out a sigh he didn’t even know he’d been holding onto. “Sure.”

          “Great!” She pounced on him, wrapping him in a one-armed hug. “See you then!” It was a short hop down to the pavement, and she was already on the sidewalk before Sunny’s brain could register more than the hug. He had to shake himself before putting the van into reverse. Dawn took the extra couple of seconds to wave, hollering, “And text me if Marianne gets suspicious!” Sunny gave her the thumbs up before he peeled away to get back to the shop. 

           Turning towards the front door, Dawn couldn’t help but sigh. Marianne better not get suspicious. She wasn't having her big sister ruin one more thing for her. Not this time.

**Author's Note:**

> For something quick (and relatively unexpected), I'm kind of proud of this piece. For one, it's always fun to hear from characters who need more time to shine in their relationships. It's an exercise in characterization! And for two, this is my first time playing around in the Strange Magic fandom (long-time lurker though). If even one of you enjoys this (no pressure), I feel like I've given back a little piece of the happiness y'all have given me for the last couple of years. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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